15-745 Spring 2008 Class Projects

Project Proposal Guidelines

Your project proposal, due 3/20, should be roughly two pages long, and should include
the following information:

Group Info:

List the names and email addresses of each member of your group (you may work by yourself if you choose).

Project Web Page:

Include the URL of a web page which you will be
maintaining for your group. This web page will initially contain your
proposal, and will eventually include your final results, etc. We will be
setting up links to these web pages from
this web page.

Project Description:

Briefly describe the goal of your project (i.e. what research question(s) are you trying to answer?) and what metrics will
be used to evaluate its success.

Logistics:

Please address each of the following issues regarding
how you will carry out your project:

Plan of Attack and Schedule:

How will you go about completing your
project? Please include a week-by-week schedule of exactly who in your
group will be doing what. We will not strictly hold you to this schedule
(other than meeting your milestone, as described below), but it is
important that you have a concrete and realistic plan. Identify what you
expect to be the critical path in your schedule. Indicate how the work
will be divided among your group members.

Milestone:

Indicate what your group plans to accomplish by
April 15th (i.e. about three weeks before the project due date).
On that date, you will submit a brief report and give
a presentation describing your progress up to that point.
Your ability to set a reasonable milestone and to meet this goal will be
factored into your final project grade.

Literature Search:

What papers and other background materials have
you collected so far to help you in your study? Are you missing anything?

Resources Needed:

What software will you need to conduct your
study? Do you have a copy of this software already? (If not, how will
you get it?) What hardware or machines will you need to run this software?
Do you have all of the resources that you need to conduct this study?

Getting Started:

What work have you done so far on this project
(other than writing up this proposal)? Do you have any questions or other
constraints that are preventing you from gettings started immediately?

Please hand in a hardcopy version of your proposal on the due date,
and also put an electronic version of the proposal (preferably in
html) on your project web page.